Latest Lessons

As I have discussed in previous columns, I often use triadic arpeggio forms within my riffs and solos as a tool to create rich-sounding, poly-chordal sounds. I’d like to continue in that vein in this month’s column by presenting different ways in which to move from one arpeggio form to another.

These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

Though it may be easier to learn other people’s solos—which is fine if that’s the goal you’re pursuing—I believe it’s much more rewarding to go out on a limb and take some musical chances, just to see what new and different sounds you can discover in the pursuit of forming a style that you can eventually call your own.

This is an alternate-picking run based on an add9 arpeggio shape on the top three strings that’s moved up and down the neck to four different positions and tonal centers, with a slight variation in bar 2. It begins in E, moves down to C with a little twist—more on that in a moment—then up to D and finally A.

In this lesson, Kenny discusses 7th chords and how they can be used to enhance any blues progression. He also demonstrates short forms of the chords that can be used for a softer sound. While discussing the 7th chords, he also talks about some of Jimi Hendrix's favorites. Check out the lesson video below — complete with video.

I’ll be showing you a relatively unknown picking technique used by Eddie Van Halen. It can be heard in countless Van Halen songs, including "I’m the One," "Spanish Fly" and "Jump." This technique is based on a combination of hammer-on notes and alternate-picked notes. Eddie likes to take a fingering pattern and hammer on the notes on one string, then alternate pick the same pattern on an adjacent string.

In this Monster Lick, I'm using a variation of the G pentatonic scale. The scales used are the flat five (or blues scale), major 3rd and major 6th pentatonic. This is achieved simply by adding the above scale tones to the standard minor pentatonic. The notes in the G minor pentatonic are G, Bb (or A#), C, D, F. The flat five is a Db (or C#), the major 3rd is a B and the major 6th is an E.

A fan of classical music, Randy Rhoads was one of the first American guitarists to successfully incorporate classical music elements into heavy metal. (“Euro-metal” guitarists, including Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker, had also experimented with melding the two genres.)

One of my prime objectives when writing music for my band Revocation is to try to push the envelope and come up with sounds, ideas, chord patterns, progressions and riffs that have been rarely explored within the thrash metal genre.

A good way to do this is to use seventh chords, which are rarely heard in metal. This month, I’d like to demonstrate a few cool ways one can use one particularly cool- and tense-sounding seventh chord in heavy, thrash-style riffs.